


tell no lies

by ThatAloneOne



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, National day of "Nobody Can Lie"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 16:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16222901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatAloneOne/pseuds/ThatAloneOne
Summary: Sunup to sundown, as far as light reached, the Singing Woman would bless and curse them in the one blow.Tell no lies.





	tell no lies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thimblerig](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/gifts).



> My bad: I didn't post on time. Consider this an extra bonus!

It took a number of minutes after waking for Kate to remember today was the day of truth. Sunup to sundown, as far as light reached, the Singing Woman would bless and curse them in the one blow.

Kate didn’t think it deserved all the drama. She knew where she stood, and who she stood with. Arthur, Eira, her ever-distant parents. Her brother would spend the day being a lazy layabout as he always did. Her parents would be travelling, as they always were. 

Eira would… 

The day didn’t matter. Whether something happened or not, it wouldn’t be a function of a blessing or a curse. It would be because the timer on the both of their patience had worn down.

Amused, Kate combed her hair as truthfully as she knew how, and went to join her brother for breakfast.

 

* * *

 

Arthur was eating breakfast at the smallest table in the parlour. More accurately, he was eating it _on_  the table, his only concession at wakefulness his spoon travelling between mouth and bowl. Kate considered sitting on top of him to see if he’d do anything about it, but he would probably move and make her spill her oatmeal. “It’s morning, in case you hadn’t noticed.” 

“I did notice,” Arthur said, mournfully. “I was having a dream about peaches and now I am awake and they’re no longer in season. It’s a day of truths, but I didn’t need to start with one so shocking.”

Kate settled in the chair across from her brother, considering pouring bits of oats into the mop of hair facing her. It looked strikingly like the portrait of the Singing Woman’s untamed mane on the wall opposite. “You don’t like peaches.”

“I know, that’s the shocking part.” Without lifting his upper body from the table, Arthur took another bite of his oatmeal. “How was your dreaming?” 

Kate had dreamt of old gods, things that would eat them up. She had dreamt they were weaving impossible ropes of wheat around the orchards while they ate half the village. 

“I dreamt of the orchards,” Kate told him. It was the truth, or as close to it as anyone would get on this day. “The apples shone red. They were gorgeous.”

Arthur sighed into his breakfast. Kate dropped a spoonful of her own into his hair.

“Brute.” Arthur tried to toss a spoonful of soggy oats her way, but with his head on the table, his aim was off. “If you wanted to know where Eira was, you could have just asked.”

“I-“ It would have been a lie to say she hadn’t been wondering. Magic choked the words in her throat. “I dumped oatmeal in your hair because you’re horrid and stole my brown sugar.”

“Eira’s in the East Wing,” Arthur told her, blithe. Kate wondered why he was awake at all today, if he didn’t want to partake in truth-speaking. Well. The special kind of truth-speaking this day tended to bring out in people. “The armoury, last I checked.”

Kate sprinkled a few more oats in her brother’s hair, and they finished the meal in companionable silence.

 

* * *

 

Kate went back to sleep after that. Her parents and most of the staff were elsewhere today, speaking truthful lies or attending services.

Sometime past noon, she rose again and combed a new set of knots out of her hair. She didn’t think about Eira. She didn’t. It was just that Kate was surprised she was still in the manor instead of making scenes at teahouses. Eira usually took full advantage of the opportunity to tell high society exactly what she thought of it.

The armoury, though. That was where Kate had intended to spend a good portion of the day, clearing rust off her collection of weapons.

It was likely a coincidence. Either way, Kate would have to find some other way to occupy the day.

 

* * *

 

 

Unwilling to leave her swords behind, Kate made her way to the practice rooms instead. The manor had several of them. As far as Kate was aware, however, she and the bodyguards were the only ones who made full use of them. Arthur was a perennial disappointment to their parents.

Kate had a half dozen swords, at least. For practice sets, for sparring, for ornamentation. They all made their home in the armoury. Unhelpful, to say the least. This one, the one she’d left behind in the practice room’s storage an age ago, was none of those. Unnamed, unknown. The soft handprint in the hilt was no longer a match for her hand.

Kate took the time to reform it, the leather bands and steel shifting near-imperceptibly under her hand until her fingers settled into new, easy grooves.

It wasn’t that she was avoiding Eira. That would have meant putting effort into it. Kate was waiting. Truths lay in actions as well as words. Would Eira find her? Would Eira look?

Kate took a breath, let it out. Her sword flashed.

 

* * *

 

 

Eira sauntered in when Kate was doing her third set. Kate finished out the movements, her bare feet noiseless against the padded floor, before turning to her. Eira looked half-unmade without her guard uniform, an alien creature half from this world and half from the next. “I see you found something to do instead of polishing your swords today.”

Kate spun her sword in a flourish, catching the setting sun on the blade. “I haven’t had need for the armoury today, no.”

Eira glanced at the aged sword in Kate’s hands, the way only the finger-grips were burnished clean. “I see.”

Kate went back to her stance. Eira watched, sunlit. “What’s your favourite truth so far?” Kate asked the Singing Woman’s tapestry. “I admitted to Arthur I knew it was him who stole my sugar. That had been a while coming.”

Eira crossed the room, nestling herself against the windowsilll. Kate missed half a step of her form at the look on Eira’s face. “Mine was when you said you hadn’t needed to come to the armoury.”

“I didn’t.” Kate let her sword go to rest, sheathing it at her side. “I hadn’t needed anything.”

Eira scoffed. “Omission is a lie, Kate. Blaspheming today?” 

Kate’s sword bumped against her leg with every step. “I am not lying.” Closer. She could see the intricacies of Eira’s braids now, twined into a maze. “I am speaking of what I choose, and not speaking of what I choose not.”

Eira’s eyes flickered, up, down.“Today isn’t about words or stopping lying to others. It’s about not lying with your actions.”

Kate reached her, close enough to touch but far enough her body ached from more than the exercise.“My actions aren’t lying.”

Eira smiled, almost. It was a challenge. “What about your heart?” 

“My heart?” Stone grated under Kate's hands, the edges of the relief she’d carved painstakingly into the wall dimpling. “What does _your_  heart lie about?”

Eira’s look were dark as the horizon. “Beating."

Kate leaned in, aching-slow, and pressed her lips to the corner of Eira’s neck. She tasted sweat, salt, the bitter alcohol-cinnamon of Eira’s perfume. Eira’s heart thrummed like wingbeats. One of Eira’s hands moved to curl in Kate’s hair, the tangled, wild strands come loose from her braid. So slowly she could have been a mountain moving, Kate pressed her lips to Eira’s jaw. The flush of her cheek. Her nose.

Eira hissed something, incoherent as truth, and brought Kate’s mouth down to hers.

When Kate managed to break away, to stop kissing her, she couldn’t help but smile. They were too close, stone dust on their shoulders, noses bumping. Kate wouldn’t have traded it for anything. 

Eira leant into her, a warmth that burned Kate to the core. “No lies, I just want to kiss you.”

Kate raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” Her thumb traced the deepening shadows under Eira’s eyes. “It’s past sundown."

“Does that you mean you think I’m lying?"

Kate kissed her again, because she could. Eira’s pulse beat against her lips. “Sometimes. Sometimes."


End file.
